I’m looking to prototype a head rest that will be used for user testing. Self skinning PU foam feels like the best fit however our normal prototype houses can only really offer harder foam. Does anyone have any experience in prototyping PU or know of a place that offers the service? China/Taiwan preferable
Thanks
more expensive tooling but if you hit the units then EVA injection might be a way to go.
https://www.popfoam.com may be a good resource
We did our own molds using a 3D printer and then poured the self skinning foam in order to create a Nerf style football. This was in the US so probably too expensive.
https://bjbenterprises.com/index.php/polyurethanes/foams/flexible/
Haven’t used them for foam prototypes but they were always very professional.
Good luck
Try AcuFit, Taiwan.
DIY is an option we’re looking at.
I have actually reached out to HLH however they don’t seem to offer this service.
Is this a fitness equipment company? That’s all I seem to be able to find.
Yes, but they would supply several overmolded parts for us in the past.
We made some prototypes in house using Smooth-On FlexFoam-iT (https://www.smooth-on.com/product-line/flexfoam-it/). The results were ok, it did foam and did skin, but the skin was very thin and did not have full coverage. Perhaps it had to do with our parts being pretty thin. It suited our purposes (brief functional testing, not show models), though. We had done others in the past that were more successful, but I can’t remember offhand the product we used (may have been the same - those parts were thicker).
We also got a quote from Suburban Model (http://www.suburbanmodel.com/), who was recommended to us by another model shop, to make some prototypes and I wish we went with them. Their technique is to paint solid urethane onto the mold, close it up, then pour in the foaming urethane. That way you can get a much tougher foam.
